Sociodemographic variables reported in the current project include age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Below are descriptions of the US sample (Total N = 7259). The majority of the US sample (84.17%) are Non-Hispanic White with minority groups represented at lower rates (Race: 2.44% Black; 2.56% Asian/Pacific Islander; 5.10% Other/Mixed Race; Ethnicity: 8.14% Hispanic/Latino).
At the time of assessment, the average age of participants was 33.66 (SD = 12.61). All participants (n = 7259) reported their age
With regards to sex and gender, the majority of the sample (88.61%) identified as women, with 6.46% identifying as nonbinary and 4.50% identifying as men. 96.25% of the sample were assigned female at birth.
The ED100K-v3 (Thornton et al., 2018a): self-report diagnostic questionnaire for eating disorders that is based on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID). The ED100K-v2 yields DSM-5 lifetime diagnoses of AN, BN, and BED. The ED100K has previously been validated against the SCID (Thornton et al., 2018b).
In terms of eating disorder diagnostic groupings, 64.09% of participants reported a history of symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of AN, 47.05% of participants reported a history of symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of BN, and 31.86% of participants reported a history of symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of BED. When taken together, 41.64% of the sample reported a history of AN only, 12.37% reported BN only, 9.1% reported BED only, 14.12% reported AN and BN, 14.44% reported BN and BED, 2.20% reported AN and BED, and 6.12% reported all three disorders. For analyses, individuals with single diagnoses are considered as independent groups. Groups with mixed diagnoses were categorized as a ‘mixed, restrictive spectrum’ (AN + BN, AN + BED, AN + BN + BED; 22.44%) or ‘mixed, binge spectrum’ (BN + BED; 14.44%)
There were 25 individuals who reported a current BMI > 70 or < 10 and 77 individuals who reported weight suppression values that were high (> 250 lb difference between highest weight and current weight or current weight and lowest weight, or negative weight suppression values – i.e. a current weight that is higher than one’s highest ever weight, or a lowest weight that is higher than one’s current weight)
BMIs of > 70 and < 10 were removed for data integrity. Weight history is presented in table 1.1. Note - there are some out of range values for weight suppression we have to decide what we want to do with these
| vars | n | mean | sd | median | trimmed | mad | min | max | range | skew | kurtosis | se | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 1 | 7259 | 65.14 | 3.04 | 65.00 | 65.06 | 2.97 | 53.00 | 82.00 | 29.00 | 0.43 | 1.39 | 0.04 |
| Current Weight | 2 | 7259 | 160.50 | 68.34 | 140.00 | 151.51 | 37.06 | 0.00 | 3000.00 | 3000.00 | 11.32 | 417.01 | 0.80 |
| Lowest Weight | 3 | 7259 | 115.46 | 36.13 | 107.00 | 110.28 | 25.20 | 45.00 | 480.00 | 435.00 | 1.92 | 6.00 | 0.42 |
| Highest Weight | 4 | 7259 | 186.42 | 78.30 | 165.00 | 175.62 | 48.93 | 0.00 | 3000.00 | 3000.00 | 8.68 | 252.71 | 0.92 |
| Current BMI | 5 | 7259 | 26.54 | 11.36 | 23.40 | 25.08 | 5.99 | 0.00 | 548.65 | 548.65 | 14.88 | 623.71 | 0.13 |
| Highest BMI | 6 | 7259 | 30.83 | 13.02 | 27.25 | 29.11 | 7.58 | 0.00 | 548.65 | 548.65 | 11.66 | 389.35 | 0.15 |
| Lowest Adult BMI | 7 | 7259 | 19.08 | 5.59 | 17.63 | 18.28 | 3.56 | 5.63 | 72.33 | 66.70 | 1.98 | 6.70 | 0.07 |
| Current Weight Suppression | 8 | 7259 | 25.92 | 35.48 | 17.00 | 20.29 | 17.79 | -290.00 | 1543.00 | 1833.00 | 12.51 | 468.18 | 0.42 |
| Current vs.Lowest Weight | 9 | 7259 | 45.04 | 52.93 | 34.00 | 38.83 | 28.17 | -128.00 | 2905.00 | 3033.00 | 23.54 | 1192.57 | 0.62 |
Eating disorder variables was assessed by three varying assessments - the ED100k; EDEQ, and CET.
For current paper – we use an item from the ED100k that captures historical exercise for weight and shape control. This question asked if exercise was ever used as a behavior to intentionally control weight or shape, with options of Never (n = 945; 13.02%), A few times, but never became a habit (n = 1710; 23.56%), and More often (n = 4604; 63.42%).
The Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q v 6.0) (Fairburn, 2008; Fairburn & Beglin, 1994) is a valid, reliable self-report questionnaire of cognitive and behavioral symptoms of eating disorders over the prior four weeks. The questionnaire has four subscales (Restraint, Eating Concern, Shape Concern, Weight Concern), a Global scale, and items that measure fasting (item 2), objective binge eating (item 15), self-induced vomiting (item 16), laxative use (item 17), and driven exercise (item 18), “Over the past 28 days, how many times have you exercised in a driven or compulsive way as a means of controlling your weight, shape, or amount of fat, or to burn off calories)”. 6290 individuals completed at least 75% of EDEQ global items. Descriptive information for EDEQ subscales is presented in table 1.2
| n | mean | sd | median | trimmed | min | max | range | skew | kurtosis | se | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restraint | 6287 | 2.85 | 1.90 | 3.00 | 2.82 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0.02 | -1.26 | 0.02 |
| Weight Concern | 6105 | 2.84 | 1.90 | 3.00 | 2.81 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0.02 | -1.26 | 0.02 |
| Eating Concern | 6132 | 2.67 | 1.68 | 2.80 | 2.65 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0.04 | -1.10 | 0.02 |
| Shape Concern | 6104 | 4.17 | 1.65 | 4.62 | 4.36 | 0 | 6 | 6 | -0.82 | -0.40 | 0.02 |
| Global | 6290 | 3.13 | 1.62 | 3.28 | 3.18 | 0 | 6 | 6 | -0.20 | -1.05 | 0.02 |
With regards to eating disorder behaviors at present, individuals reported a range of ongoing ED behviors (see table 1.3). Note – need to decide what to do with out of range values While about half (46.92%) of individuals reported any driven exercise in the past four weeks, a smaller number (13.38%) reported driven exercise more than 20 times in the past 28 days.
| n | mean | sd | median | trimmed | min | max | range | skew | kurtosis | se | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laxative Use | 6136 | 1.57 | 5.66 | 0 | 0.16 | 0 | 150 | 150 | 7.26 | 107.71 | 0.07 |
| Vomitting | 6144 | 3.06 | 12.33 | 0 | 0.49 | 0 | 400 | 400 | 11.90 | 254.49 | 0.16 |
| Driven Exercise | 6149 | 5.64 | 8.95 | 0 | 3.72 | 0 | 85 | 85 | 1.85 | 4.15 | 0.11 |
| Binge Eating (days) | 5701 | 4.23 | 7.43 | 0 | 2.44 | 0 | 120 | 120 | 2.55 | 13.48 | 0.10 |
| Fasting (Oridnal 0-6) | 6280 | 1.73 | 2.06 | 1 | 1.41 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0.95 | -0.50 | 0.03 |
The Compulsive Exercise Test (CET) (Taranis et al., 2011): In response to the limitations of previous measures of compulsive exercise, Taranis et al. (2011) developed the CET. The CET is designed to facilitate tests of an empirically supported cognitive behavioral model of compulsive exercise within the context of eating disorders. The CET represented a shift in the focus of measures of compulsive exercise, as it was designed to capture the features of compulsive exercise most relevant for understanding eating disorders, rather than earlier simplistic measures which focused on quantity of exercise and did not capture psychological dependence. The CET is based on four key factors proposed to characterise compulsive exercise based on Meyer, Taranis, Goodwin, and Haycraft (2011) cognitive-behavioural model: eating psychopathology, obsessive compulsiveness, affect regulation, and perfectionism. In this model, compulsive exercise differs from healthy exercise in that compulsively exercising individuals present with weight and shape concerns, persistently continue exercising with the aim to avoid guilt or negative affect, and have very rigid, ritualistic and inflexible attitudes towards their exercising behaviour (Meyer et al., 2011). The time frame measured is current and the CET has a total score and five subscales. There is also a clinical cutoff defined for the scale, which can be used to define CE presence vs. absence.
Only a subset (n = 4640) of participants completed the CET
Subscale and total score information for the CET is presented in Table 1.4. Of those completing the CET, about a third (34.38%), met clinical cutoff for current compulsive exercise.
| n | mean | sd | median | trimmed | min | max | range | skew | kurtosis | se | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avoidance and Rule-Driven Behavior | 4608 | 2.08 | 1.47 | 1.88 | 2.01 | 0.00 | 5 | 5.00 | 0.34 | -0.92 | 0.02 |
| Weight Control | 4630 | 3.10 | 1.30 | 3.20 | 3.17 | 0.00 | 5 | 5.00 | -0.39 | -0.72 | 0.02 |
| Rigidity | 4579 | 2.49 | 1.47 | 2.67 | 2.50 | 0.00 | 5 | 5.00 | -0.08 | -1.02 | 0.02 |
| Mood Improvement | 4627 | 3.13 | 1.30 | 3.20 | 3.21 | 0.00 | 5 | 5.00 | -0.50 | -0.42 | 0.02 |
| Lack of Enjoyment | 4584 | 2.40 | 1.41 | 2.33 | 2.35 | 0.00 | 5 | 5.00 | 0.31 | -0.89 | 0.02 |
| Total | 4640 | 13.20 | 4.17 | 13.09 | 13.21 | 1.67 | 25 | 23.33 | 0.02 | -0.59 | 0.06 |
Considering across diagnosis, the following describes rates of (1) maladaptive exercise history; (2) rates of CET clinical cutoff being met, and (3) current CET symptom scores
History of Maladaptive Exercise was reported most frequently in the AN, AN-Mixed Diagnosis, and BN groups, around 60% in each of these diagnostic groups reporting history of regular engagment. Maladaptive exercise was also reported in half of those with BN-BED (50%) and a portion (20%) of those with BED.
With regards to current compulsive exercise, 35-40% of individuals reporting history of AN, AN Mixed, and BN met current clinical cutoff on the CET for compulsive exercise, with rates being lower in those with histories of BN-BED (29%) and BED (15%). Overall, median CET scores were below clinical cutoff for all groups.
Regarding age, those who reported a history of driven exercise appeared to be similar ages in the AN and AN Mixed groups, though there was an 8, 9, and 10 year difference in median age among those who reported no history vs a regular history of maladaptive exercise for the BN, BED, and BN-BED Mixed groups, respectively, with those reporting a maldaptive exercise history having a younger median age.
With regards to CET Scores, there did not appear to be an overall association based on visual inspection of a scatterplot between age and current CET scores in the full sample, nor a strong association between meeting clinical cutoff on the CET score and current age.
## Gender
Female and nonbinary individuals reported Histories of Maladaptive Exercise over 60%, while Male individuals reported this history ~40%
### Current Weight Suppression